The $10,000 Mobile Workstation: Asus ProArt StudioBook One Review - ENGINEERING.com
Michael Alba posted on December 10, 2020 |
Is the first laptop with an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 worth the massive price tag?
The Asus ProArt StudioBook One. (Image courtesy of NVIDIA.)
What can you buy for ten thousand and one dollars? Four quarters and an Asus ProArt StudioBook One.
The ProArt StudioBook One is a unique mobile workstation, and not just because of its astronomical price tag. It's also the first laptop with an NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 GPU, the best mobile Quadro currently available. NVIDIA themselves call the ProArt the "world's fastest mobile workstation."
Naturally, we wanted to test that claim. So we got a hold of a ProArt to see what $10k can do for engineers.
Table of Contents
1. Video Overview2. Specs
3. Design
4. Performance
i. SPECviewperf 13
ii. SPECworkstation 3
iii. PassMark PerformanceTest 9.0
iv. Cinebench R20
v. SOLIDWORKS Benchmark
vii. PCMark 10
viii. Summary
5. Battery
6. Display
7. Price/Performance
8. Experience
9. Conclusion
If you're in a hurry, here's our video summary of the Asus ProArt StudioBook One. For full details, keep reading below.
Unlike most mobile workstations, the Asus ProArt StudioBook One doesn't offer any customizable configurations. There's a single model of the laptop—for now, anyways—and this is it:
Note that Asus does offer other ProArt StudioBook mobile workstations, such as the ProArt StudioBook 15 and 17, ProArt StudioBook Pro 15 and 17, and ProArt StudioBook Pro X. Yes, I know how tedious those names are.
In the context of this review, any mention of ProArt or StudioBook or ProArt StudioBook refers to the ProArt StudioBook One, which is the only laptop with the top specs given above and the unique design we'll talk about below.
The Asus ProArt StudioBook One is the kingpin of the Asus ProArt StudioBook family. (Image courtesy of Asus.)
The ProArt resembles a classic mobile workstation, but differentiates itself with an intriguing design choice: the processors are positioned behind the 4K display, rather than in the chassis beneath the keyboard. When you open the ProArt, the casing behind the screen hinges open to create a 4.57° gap for airflow.
(Image courtesy of Asus.)
This setup supposedly provides better cooling than the traditional sub-keyboard placement, a necessity for the high power draw of the Quadro RTX 6000. The heatsink includes a titanium vapor chamber that provides up to 300W of heat dissipation (which just happens to match the wattage of the supplied power adaptor).
(Images courtesy of Asus.)
The ProArt's unique design has pros and cons. The design keeps the keyboard cool and comfortable for the hands, but you can feel the heat near the top of the display (when the fans are running, it functions like a miniature space heater). The design also makes the ProArt top-heavy, which can make it awkward to use the laptop on top of your lap. Asus mitigates this by including an unspecified form of ballast in the chassis, but that results in a noticeably heavy weight of 6.39lbs (not the heaviest mobile workstation we've ever reviewed, but close). The design also means all the ports are on the display half, which may be the reason why they're all USB-C (not enough room for HDMI, USB-A, or the rest of the moribund port posse.)
Ports on the Asus ProArt StudioBook One. (Image courtesy of Asus.)
The ProArt is clearly aiming for a sleek, professional look, but it only half delivers. The bottom half of the ProArt is razor thin and packs a spacious keyboard and large trackpad. The aluminum-magnesium chassis looks premium with its "star grey" finish (personally, grey isn't the color I think of when I think of stars). The ProArt's chassis has diamond-cut edges with corners that are sharp both aesthetically and physically (seriously, be careful. They can poke your eye out).
The top half of the ProArt, however, can't help but look clunky with its irregular hinged casing. I also wonder about the long-term reliability of the hinge, though Asus does claim that "[e]very ProArt product passes many durability tests and military-grade certifications."
(Image courtesy of Asus.)
Ultimately, you're not going to shell out $10k for a computer because you like the way it looks. The ProArt's price tag is dictated by its powerhouse specs—if you want the laptop with the best graphics performance around, this is it. It'll cost you, but it delivers.
i. SPECviewperf 13
The SPECviewperf 13 benchmark is representative of viewport performance in professional applications such as CATIA, Creo, NX, and SOLIDWORKS. Here's how the ProArt stacks up to the other mobile workstations we've reviewed recently (Acer ConceptD 7 Pro, Microsoft Surface Book 3, Dell Precision 5550):
The ProArt StudioBook One takes the lead in nearly every viewset, in some cases almost doubling the next best result.
ii. SPECworkstation 3
SPECviewperf is a subset of a more comprehensive SPEC benchmark, SPECworkstation 3, which runs dozens of tests for CPU, GPU, and storage performance across different industry workflows. Here's how the ProArt fared (higher scores are better):
Here's a comparison to other mobile workstations:
The ProArt sweeps the board. Unsurprisingly, the biggest win is the GPU Compute segment, which comprises tests of physically based rendering, deep learning, and molecular dynamics simulation. Note just how much the Quadro RTX 6000 in the ProArt surpasses the Quadro RTX 5000 in the Acer ConceptD 7 Pro—the ProArt is roughly 50 percent more effective at GPU computation.
iii. PassMark PerformanceTest 9.0
In PassMark PerformanceTest, a consumer-oriented benchmark of overall system performance, the ProArt receives an average score. PerformanceTest skews most to CPU and disk performance, meaning the ProArt's heavy hitting graphics aren't helping it as much as in other benchmarks.
The ProArt predictably takes the 3D Graphics category—albeit not by much—but doesn't lead in any other PerformanceTest category and ultimately achieves the second-to-lowest PassMark rating.
iv. Cinebench R20
Cinebench R20 is a benchmark of CPU rendering performance. While the ProArt has a powerful CPU—the only i9 of the computers we've been comparing—it doesn't win this benchmark either. The Dell Precision 5550, a mid-tier mobile workstation with a much lower price tag, packs a 10th-gen Intel i7 chip (10875H) compared to the ProArt's dated 9th-gen i9 (9980HK). Though both processors have similar specs, the newer model clearly outperforms.
v. SOLIDWORKS Benchmark
If you're looking for a laptop for SOLIDWORKS, you won't find the best value in the Asus ProArt StudioBook One. The ProArt's Quadro RTX 6000 doesn't shine much in the SOLIDWORKS benchmark, with one exception: RealView, a SOLIDWORKS feature which uses the graphics card for realistic viewport rendering. (Note: we don't have SOLIDWORKS benchmark data for two of the computers we've been comparing thus far.)
vi. 3DMark
3DMark, a benchmark of graphics performance in a gaming context, shines a spotlight on the ProArt's Quadro RTX 6000, and the ProArt proves its mettle.
Time Spy is a DirectX 12 benchmark containing two GPU tests and one CPU test, though the final result is heavily weighted (85%) to GPU performance. Port Royal is a complementary benchmark of DirectX real-time ray tracing, with only a GPU component. For both tests, we can see the clear relationship between GPU and DirectX performance, with the Quadro RTX 6000 far ahead of the competition.
vii. PCMark 10
Our final performance benchmark, PCMark, is a general-purpose test of performance based on typical office workloads such as web browsing, productivity apps, and digital content creation. We ran the full version of the test, PCMark Extended. The ProArt performs just fine, but doesn't dominate the field as it did with 3DMark. It achieves almost, but not quite, the best overall score.
viii. Summary
Here's a summary of all performance benchmarks. Where no cumulative score is available for a given benchmark, a geometric mean of all categories is displayed. Results are normalized to the average for a given benchmark.
The Asus ProArt StudioBook One comes with a 90Wh battery, which is a touch bigger than the average mobile workstation battery and 10 percent less than the flight-legal maximum. The big battery is necessary, as the ProArt has to accommodate its beast of a graphics card without draining its joule reserves too quickly. And it manages to do okay, but only because the Quadro RTX 6000 is heavily limited when the ProArt is unplugged. For example, a GPU Blender render that took around 37 seconds when plugged in took nearly two minutes on battery power (with power mode set to best performance).
If you can live with the performance limitations, here's the range of life you can expect from the ProArt battery:
Here's how the battery life compares to other laptops:
To charge the battery, the ProArt ships with the most powerful power adaptor I've seen in a mobile workstation. At 300W, the adaptor can keep those electrons flowing fast enough to satiate the sizeable appetite of the RTX 6000. When running at top speed, the GPU can consume around 200W on its own.
Despite its 300W output, the ProArt power adaptor somehow manages to be about the same size as the 135W adaptor on my work laptop. According to Asus, the adaptor is built with gallium nitride (GaN) field-effect transistors rather than conventional silicon MOSFETs, which in addition to its compact size also increases the efficiency of the adaptor.
The Asus ProArt StudioBook One is mainly targeted at the creator market (that's probably why it's called the ProArt). As such, Asus didn't skimp on the display. It has a 15.6" 3840 x 2160 low-reflection display with a 120Hz refresh rate that promises 100% Adobe RGB coverage and sub-1 Delta E color accuracy. It looks great, but it doesn't quite live up to that promise.
We tested the display with a Spyder5ELITE colorimeter and found that it hits only 93% of Adobe RGB and 97% sRGB. It does, however, provide accurate colors with an average Delta E of 0.75. Peak brightness averages 284 nits, which is perfectly fine for indoor environments but may suffer in direct sunlight (though the low-glare display will mitigate that). As with all displays, these values vary around the screen, but not noticeably to the eye.
The ProArt does come with a pre-installed app called ProArt Creator Hub which has an option to calibrate the display's color accuracy, but we didn't have the calibrator the app demanded (an X-Rite i1Display Pro) so all our tests used the color profile that shipped with the computer. Besides calibration, Creator Hub also shows system info like fan speeds and CPU loads, and allows users to set up "Task Groups" for launching apps together. Unfortunately you can't specify the window configuration (one app on each half of the screen, for instance) nor set custom desktop icons (they all have the default ProArt icon), but I suppose this feature could come in handy for some.
ProArt Creator Hub.
For most users, even those who demand high graphical performance, the Asus ProArt StudioBook One's $10k price tag is hard to justify. While it provides clear performance gains in benchmarks like 3DMark, SPECviewperf, and SPECworkstation, it also falls below the competition in benchmarks that put less emphasis on graphics, such as PassMark and Cinebench. Here's a summary:
The ProArt dominates where it counts, but this domination comes at a steep cost. Looking at the price/performance ratio across the four computers, it's clear the ProArt does not provide the best bang for your buck.
Here we can visualize just how wide the price chasm is compared to other mobile workstations:
As much as I appreciate the powerhouse graphical performance of the Asus ProArt StudioBook One, it's got several downsides as a mobile workstation. Its weight, for instance, could make it a burden to carry around regularly (not that I had anywhere to take it these days). If you're like me, you'd also need to carry around some USB-C dongles to accommodate the lack of USB-A and HDMI ports on the ProArt. And you'd definitely need to take the power adaptor (though it's impressively compact) because it's the key to unlocking the performance you're paying $10,000 for.
The keyboard on the ProArt is extremely shallow. It's got the same look and feel as the last few generations of MacBooks, which is to say it looks nice but it's not comfortable to type on. I personally prefer a touch more depth on my keyboard. There's an excellent fingerprint sensor on the power button that's so well-disguised as a regular key that I thought the fingerprint icon was printed on it by mistake. The trackpad is also excellent—most Windows laptops have really stepped up their trackpad game recently, and the ProArt's is as smooth and responsive as any of them.
The ProArt includes a button to toggle between performance modes (quiet, balanced, and performance), but it only works when the laptop is plugged in and even then only when it reaches a battery threshold of around 30 percent. I kept the computer in performance mode most of the time, and when stressed it gets predictably loud and hot at the top of the display (which serves as the air outlet).
The green line represents GPU power usage in quiet, balanced, and performance mode for a sample GPU rendering task. The red line is CPU power.
There were a few things I found frustrating about using the ProArt. Occasionally I would try wake it from sleep and the display would activate (I could see the lights turning on) but it would remain black. The only solution I found was to hard restart the device. A few applications simply refused to work, including Notepad, WordPad, and Paint. The webcam also didn't work—the light would come on, but there was never a camera signal available.
Something else that annoyed me was the pre-installed bloatware—the worst offender being McAfee. I lost count of how many annoying popups I got from McAfee. Yes, I could've uninstalled it. But then I wouldn't have been able to complain about it. And I live to complain.
It felt great to take advantage of the Quadro RTX 6000 in the Asus ProArt StudioBook One. When you let it fly, this GPU gives the best graphical performance of any mobile workstation we've tested.
But there are many downsides to the ProArt, too. It's heavy, its ports are limited, it has odd quirks that make the user experience frustrating, and, worst of all, the ProArt is the most expensive laptop we've ever reviewed.
So who should buy this laptop? Anyone in the intersection of people who need top-tier GPU performance (machine learning researchers, for instance), who require a mobile form factor (but are willing to be tethered to an outlet), and who can afford the $10,000 price tag (or can persuade their boss to buy it for them).
I imagine that's a thin intersection, but I'm sure there's a few people out there for whom the Asus ProArt StudioBook One is a perfect fit. If you're one of them, let us know you exist in the comments below.
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